1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electro-mechanical decorative sculptural displays and, more particularly, to a motorized rotating display for a sculptured work such as a Christmas tree which is capable of rotation or counter rotation and is also illuminated by fiber optic light sources.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A wide variety of holiday and other festive ornamental displays exist, including numerous types of Christmas ornamental displays. Many of these displays incorporate music and/or light effects and, in some cases motion. For example, the art is replete with many forms of illumination of artificial Christmas trees. Some of these trees, such as those disclosed in issued U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,227,861, 3,465,139, 3,735,117, 3,035,162 and 2,519,690, disclose systems whereby individual illumination effects are provided at particular locations generally at the ends of branches or throughout the trunk of the tree. Some of these patents show a single illumination source while others contemplate separate illumination of respective bulbs.
Also known in the art are artificial Christmas trees which are illuminated by fiber optic elements. There are many examples of such trees, including for example, those shown in issued U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,564,233, 3,766,376, 4,068,118 and 4,364,102. All of these patents disclose various illumination systems which produce either point sources of light or clusters of light into the tree foliage and require substantial complexity in their construction and assembly.
Small fiber optic Christmas trees having a height generally ranging from 2 feet to 4 feet are well known and commercially available. Such trees include a hollow main stem or trunk and a plurality of branches having simulated tree needles, usually shredded green polyvinyl chloride (PVC), mounted thereon. A plurality of fiber optic strands extend into and along the branches and have terminal ends near the tips of the branches and the needles. The fiber optic strands extend from the branches down through the center of the hollow main stem or trunk. The main stem or trunk is supported on a housing generally in the form of a container or pot having a socket in its upper end telescopically receiving the lower end of the main stem or trunk. A motor driven rotatable color wheel is mounted in the housing or pot and a halogen light is mounted under the color wheel so that the rotating color wheel will illuminate the ends of the fiber optic strands at the lower end of the main stem with different colors. The main stem or trunk must have a diameter sufficient to receive a large number of fiber optic strands which terminate at the lower end of the main stem or trunk.
Various types of holiday and other festive decorative sculptural works as opposed to simulated trees, are also available in the marketplace. These works include various types of ceramic figurines, holiday scenes, and other objects of an almost infinite variety. Certain items of this type have central body portions of the sculptural work which are molded from suitable plastic materials, rather than ceramics. Molded sculpted Christmas Trees, including those illuminated by fiber optic lighting elements are known in the prior art. The known prior art have tended to use the same type of motor driven rotatable color wheel described above with respect to the stem and trunk tree designs, however. The ability to provide an articulated design with, for example, layers or sections of the design which rotate or counter rotate was limited, however, because of the necessity of running the wiring harness for the fiber optic lights from the distal light locations to the color wheel in the base of the device.
The present invention accordingly has as one object to provide a rotating or counter rotating motorized base design for a fiber optic illuminated sculpted object which provides an improved possibility of articulation by means of a novel arrangement of the associated lighting wiring harnesses and electrical contact system as well as the motor drive arrangements.